Helpful Web Sites (autos/electronics)

The internet is such a good place to do research before you spend money. Don't make a major purchase without using this huge resource. I have a couple of helpful websites to share with you today: www.testfreaks.com and www.repairpal.com.

Let's start with TestFreaks, a site that's in Beta now. This site specializes in giving you unbiased reviews on thousands of electronic products from camcorders to mp3 players. They have expert reviews and user reviews. On one item, the Sandisk Sansa Clip, which is the mp3 player I use, they have 15 expert reviews and 290 user reviews. That's a lot of opinions! These days most smart shoppers on the web won't buy anything that hasn't been reviewed by a fair amount of experts and users. Why take the chance?

The next site is RepairPal and this is all about auto repair. What this site does is give you some powerful knowledge when it comes to making repairs on your car. You know how difficult it is to know if you're getting a good price on a repair to your car. Well, with this site you can feel much better in this regard. When you know you need something done, go to this site and enter in information about your car and what it needs along with your zip code and you'll get a range of prices for the repair along with a listing of shops in your area that can perform the job. Pretty helpful. I had hoped to see what various costs for a 30k tune-up on my '07 Sienna would be, but unfortunately tune-ups wasn't a repair listed. Hopefully they'll add these maintenance jobs in the future since they're needed by everyone.

Speaking of tune-ups, you are tuning up your car at regular intervals, right? It will just cost you more later if you're not. Until next time, spend smart.